She finds smoother selling in America.

• Author: Richter, Chris
• Position: PEOPLE

Lori Jarrett is an easy target. Her company, VirtuosoWorks Inc., was one of those software companies, moving to India in early 2003 for the cheap labor. On top of that, its signature software could take jobs from musicians.

But VirtuosoWorks came back to Greensboro in 2004, and it's growing. Notion, its $599 software, enables users to compose music on a computer. As they write, they can listen using sampled notes from the London Symphony Orchestra.

Jarrett's interest in music started early. Her father, Jack, was a music professor at UNC Greensboro when she was in elementary and middle school. After getting a bachelor's in guitar performance from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1986, she planned to attend Manhattan School of Music to prepare for a career as a classical guitarist, but a bout with mononucleosis changed her mind. "I thought, if this were 20 years from now, I'd be in the same position," Jarrett, 45, recalls. "I wouldn't have health insurance. There are only a few people who have a career as a performer."

Temp jobs had kept her afloat, and she dabbled with computers while at Bowery Savings Bank, eventually becoming its go-to person for information technology. In 1988, she moved to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp., now London-based HSBC Holdings, where she headed...